Questions tagged [bsd]

The license-specific tag for the BSD family of permissive open-source licenses. Use on questions about them; their origins, use, and design.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
39 votes
7 answers
16k views

Can I take BSD licensed code and distribute it under GPL?

Or in more general terms: Can I take code which is licensed under a permissive open source license (like the BSD license) and distribute it under a copyleft free software license (like the GPL)? ...
Lesmana's user avatar
  • 493
17 votes
2 answers
4k views

Can I license Python project under 3-clause BSD while it has GPL-based dependencies

I'm working on an open source Python project and we have plans to use GPLv2-licensed library python3-xlib, but we will not distribute it with our library. So user can install it by pip install our-lib ...
Vasily Ryabov's user avatar
243 votes
3 answers
139k views

What are the essential differences between the BSD and MIT licences?

There are many articles out there which cover the topic in length and breadth, but so far I haven't found a nice, concise answer to the question. What are the most important differences between the ...
G.Rassovsky's user avatar
  • 3,027
9 votes
1 answer
5k views

BSD 3-Clause: where to place license for binary installation?

We want to publish a project that does use some components under BSD-3-Clause license according to below: Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of ...
Top-Master's user avatar
28 votes
4 answers
3k views

If I include some GPL code in my project, can I release it as BSD?

I have scientific software that I would like to release under the BSD 3-clause licence, but it includes some old code that was released under GPL. Can I still package it all and release as BSD?
mirams's user avatar
  • 417
3 votes
1 answer
897 views

BSD-3, third clause clarification

Neither the name of the [organization] nor the names of its contributors may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software without specific prior written permission. What's this ...
OverLordGoldDragon's user avatar
18 votes
2 answers
8k views

How is the BSD GPL-compatible?

The BSD license says that derivative works may be distributed under the following conditions: Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted ...
gpl's user avatar
  • 181
14 votes
1 answer
3k views

How to licence a project which includes MIT, BSD, Modified BSD, and New BSD libraries

I've been working on a project for a while, and I'm almost ready to release it, but I've been more concerned with getting it to build than legal considerations, and now I'm not at all sure where I ...
Misha Gale's user avatar
11 votes
3 answers
9k views

How should you put attribution into your project?

When you're copying open source from another project (not simply linking), how should you provide attribution in your source repo? I've copied some things into my code base that are probably not ...
xenoterracide's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
3k views

What's the usual procedure when using MIT or BSD-2-Clause licensed source code with something like `<script src="…`, `require(…` or `import …`?

This is not a legal question. It might touch the legal aspects around Open Source licenses but I need general help understanding how they work and what the usual procedure is. Part 1 of my question: ...
finefoot's user avatar
  • 163
5 votes
4 answers
2k views

How to change the licence of Java project from GNU/ GPL to MIT / BSD / Apache

I had developed a Java application which is connected to MySQL Workbench by using mysql-connector-java-8.0.21.jar file. When I deploy the project and send source code to the client he says that: The ...
Atif Rizwan's user avatar
4 votes
2 answers
291 views

Is copyright of a contribution to a BSD 2-clause project automatically assigned to the project's copyright owner?

The 2-clause BSD licence includes the clause: Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. What implications does this ...
Ian Hinder's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
3k views

Clarification of BSD's second clause - binary must reproduce copyright notice?

The second clause of the BSD licences: Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or ...
Pharap's user avatar
  • 208
3 votes
2 answers
683 views

License notice for BSD and MIT licenses

Should I put the complete text of BSD or MIT license to every file? For longer licenses like GPL or MPL, there is a license notice. It is relatively short text that says what license is selected for ...
anton_rh's user avatar
  • 315
23 votes
3 answers
7k views

Can someone re-license my BSD-3-licensed project under the MIT license, remove my copyright notices, and list me as a "collaborator" without consent

I maintain an open source numerical computing library. I license my project under BSD-3. Another developer has copied 90% of the source code to a new project with the same name, while changing the ...
user3483203's user avatar
13 votes
1 answer
3k views

Derived work of BSD licensed software, how do I indicate this?

I found a javascript module (file), which contains two functions, and I would like to modify it under the terms of its BSD license. I'm happy for the resulting source file to be declared derived work ...
Paolo's user avatar
  • 131
9 votes
1 answer
3k views

Can someone fork my GPL licensed project and re-license it under MIT or BSD?

I want all the people who link to my software should also release their code under GPL. But what if someone forked it and attempted to relicense it under the MIT, BSD, Apache, or LGPL licenses? Can I ...
user avatar
7 votes
2 answers
651 views

Does the BSD licence implicitly apply to derived work?

Moved from the discussion of this answer, which makes the following claim about BSD licences: The 3BSD licence requires (in clause 1) that your copyright notices be preserved, and that some licence ...
mathrick's user avatar
  • 171
7 votes
2 answers
2k views

Why does the clause 3 of 4-clause BSD makes it incompatible with GPL?

As explained on the GNU GPL site, the 4-clause BSD is incompatible with GPL because of the clause 3 which states: All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software must ...
Dmitry Grigoryev's user avatar
6 votes
3 answers
6k views

Can an NPM package have an MIT license on github if it depends on MIT packages with BSD-2, BSD-3 and Apache 2 licenses

I am trying to understand if an NPM package can be open-source on GitHub with an MIT license if it depends on NPM packages that are open-source on GitHub with a BSD-2, BSD-3, Apache 1 or Apache 2 ...
Markus Fisher's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
524 views

Can I combine multiple 2-Clause BSD LICENSE files into one?

Suppose I have a program which uses the BSD 2-Clause license: Copyright (c) 2016 Myself All Rights Reserved [BSD 2-Clause boilerplate here] It happens to use a library, in some foo/ subdirectory ...
Kaz's user avatar
  • 544
5 votes
1 answer
2k views

BSD 3-clause: how to update with modifications?

Let's say I start with code that is (c) 2014 Struvious Featherstone and licensed according to the BSD 3-clause license. Now I make some changes for my employer Zippety Duda, Inc. and I want to ...
Jason S's user avatar
  • 153
5 votes
2 answers
2k views

In the BSD license, what does "redistribution" mean?

I'm trying to understand all the responsibilities of this license. Does redistribution mean: publicly placing a windows .exe using the BSD licensed library for users to download on a website(free and ...
ima_prog's user avatar
5 votes
1 answer
756 views

Can I use BSD license-based dll statically linked to MinGW under the run-time licence exception?

This BSD DLL depends on 3 MinGW run-time libraries (libgcc_s_sjlj-1.dll, libgfortran-3.dll and libquadmath-0.dll). What if I'll compile them statically into BSD dll to eliminate dependences on MinGW ...
Andrii's user avatar
  • 103
5 votes
1 answer
1k views

BSD-3 Closed Source Attribution

I'm having some confusion with the BSD-3 license language. I am going to close source a bsd-3 project and make modifications to it. I will not be redistributing the code. It will be used as a SaaS. ...
TheDizzle's user avatar
  • 153
3 votes
1 answer
293 views

BSD-3 Licensing in Framework's Documentation

I am a Flutter developer, and it's documentation code samples are licensed under BSD-3, does that mean when learning from it and then applying that to my code I should include the license in my code (...
Noureddine Debiane's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
2k views

Can I distribute a BSD code with GPL v3 binaries?

I found a GPL v3 licensed library, that I can compile for various architectures and use in the code for a BSD licensed project. This means that I probably have to distribute the binaries with it. ...
goelakash's user avatar
  • 133
3 votes
1 answer
1k views

Can I take MIT licensed code and distribute it under BSD?

There is django-auth-kerberos (MIT) which I want to cherry-pick as initial implementation and include+modify as a plugin to python-social-auth/social-core (BSD). Does the MIT license permit this? Are ...
Alexander Todorov's user avatar
3 votes
1 answer
176 views

A small Go library under GPLv2, rewrite it under modified BSD

Go is using a modified BSD license. I would like to use the same license for some projects, most parts / libraries will be published under an open source license, but clients do demand some of the ...
Tim's user avatar
  • 163
2 votes
3 answers
676 views

Do you need to contact the author to use a BSD-licensed software?

If a company wants to use an application that is distributed under the BSD license with this text below. Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted ...
HelloWorld1's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
217 views

At what point is software 'different enough' to exclude BSD license notice?

I ported a MATLAB repository to Python, with former having this two clause BSD License reading: Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the ...
OverLordGoldDragon's user avatar
2 votes
1 answer
257 views

Automated GPL download and installation in BSD project

I have a dependency on GPL-licensed library in the library I maintain. My library is BSD and must remain as such. Wondering if I can automate the download and installation of the GPL dependency in ...
Maddy Scientist's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
170 views

Standard contract for OSS work

I'm the maintainer/main contributor to a Java library, that is open source software under BSD license. I currently receive no funding for my work in this project, but demand is rising. As a full time ...
Harald K's user avatar
  • 119
1 vote
1 answer
222 views

What does "with modifications" mean in BSD licenses?

All BSD licenses start with the following paragraph: Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met: ...
Shersh's user avatar
  • 475
-4 votes
1 answer
87 views

Licence of this dictionary file

What is the licence of this dictionary file https://svnweb.freebsd.org/csrg/share/dict/words?revision=61569&view=markup . Is it also BSD or some else?
rightlifesavecompenthusiast's user avatar